This invention relates generally to cooking appliances and, more particularly, to heating systems and methods for cooking food items in a slow cook mode.
Conventional cooking appliances, including ranges and ovens, have a cabinet that defines a cooking cavity within which food items are placed. A plurality of heating elements are positioned within the cooking cavity for heating the food items. With conventional cooking appliances, if a consumer desires to slow cook a food item for a relatively long time period, such as about 2 hours to about 9 hours, a crock pot or similar stand-alone cooking appliance is required.
Some conventional ovens include a programmed cooking algorithm to cook the food item without the supervision of the consumer during the cooking process. However, such conventional ovens may not slow cook the food item. For example, the conventional ovens may not start cooking a food item in the morning, and continuously cook the food item during the day, while the consumer is working, such that the food item is completely cooked by the time the consumer returns home.